I've got beer can chicken in mind for Sunday. Going to check produce store tomorrow for whatever looks good to go with. Thinking corn again - days are getting short for fresh sweet corn. Maybe some green beans if I can find fresh.Wife is going to do a pasta salad and triple chocolate, birthday cake, and maybe fresh strawberry ice cream.

Not a good week! Did three beer can chickens. Set up WSM for 250 degrees. Chickens were rubbed with Billy Bones Wall's Original for a rub. Hickory for smoke. Chickens on for 3 1/2 hours - juices running clear - legs wiggled freely - Maverick read 175 degrees when I pulled them off the smoker and let rest tented with foil for 20 minutes. Meat was not cooked at the bone. Had to put in a 350 degree oven for 1/2 hour to finish. Turned out good but not happy with the cook.Carcasses and leftover meat simmering as I type and will be a nice pot of soup tonight.

And what is this "fall" or "autumn" season everyone is referring to? Up here in Alberta we have two seasons - "winter" and "road construction".

Know road construction season. Did a business trip to Indianapolis last month - never even thought about I65 - to much construction and to many serious accidents - US 41 & I74 down - various U.S. and State highways home.Following week to northeast Ohio. Made the mistake of the Ohio Turnpike going east. It is a disaster with construction and you pay to drive on it! U.S. 18 & U.S. 20 into northeast Indiana before picking up Indiana Turnpike.All three alternate routes only added about 1 1/2 hours - 15 minutes, 45 minutes, & 30 minutes - to my total drive time and were much more scenic and enjoyable without all the a******* trying to go 90 MPH to beat you to the next construction zone.

And what is this "fall" or "autumn" season everyone is referring to? Up here in Alberta we have two seasons - "winter" and "road construction".

Know road construction season. Did a business trip to Indianapolis last month - never even thought about I65 - to much construction and to many serious accidents - US 41 & I74 down - various U.S. and State highways home.Following week to northeast Ohio. Made the mistake of the Ohio Turnpike going east. It is a disaster with construction and you pay to drive on it! U.S. 18 & U.S. 20 into northeast Indiana before picking up Indiana Turnpike.All three alternate routes only added about 1 1/2 hours - 15 minutes, 45 minutes, & 30 minutes - to my total drive time and were much more scenic and enjoyable without all the a******* trying to go 90 MPH to beat you to the next construction zone.

Wow - that's like driving on the Queen Elizabeth Highway between Calgary and Edmonton. Speed limit is 110 km/h (about 68 mph) but there are always some stupid, entitled creeps that go up to 50% faster than that. In winter I usually pass them later on as they're sitting in a ditch because they spun out.

Unlike propane, you'll never wake up scorched and naked in another county because you mishandled a bag of briquettes.

I'm finding that staying off of the interstates is much more enjoyable than putting up with the idiots. When I went to Indy last month on U.S. 41, if there was a car within 1/2 mile of me, I thought I was in traffic. I'd turn on traffic reports for I65 (only 10 or 15 miles east of me most of the way) and hear about the major backups through the construction zones. Winter brings out the "best" in the SUV drivers that think they're invincible. Had to drive from the Chicago area to Des Moines, IA about ten years ago - the day after a major snowstorm. Couldn't drive 1/10th of a mile without seeing some big truck, SUV, or car in the ditch. Thought about counting them in Iowa but got bored around 300 in the first 20 miles or so.My big traffic "pet peeve" is the A's & I's on the "crotch rockets". I'll see one or many times a bunch, on a crowded interstate, coming up behind me at 125 MPH or more, bobbing and weaving and "popping wheelies" through traffic. Wife will get mad at me when I see them and start to root for the light pole or sign post as they blow by me. As long as no one else gets hurt, I figure it's just part of natural selection and improving the gene pool.

Winter brings out the "best" in the SUV drivers that think they're invincible. Had to drive from the Chicago area to Des Moines, IA about ten years ago - the day after a major snowstorm. Couldn't drive 1/10th of a mile without seeing some big truck, SUV, or car in the ditch. Thought about counting them in Iowa but got bored around 300 in the first 20 miles or so.My big traffic "pet peeve" is the A's & I's on the "crotch rockets". I'll see one or many times a bunch, on a crowded interstate, coming up behind me at 125 MPH or more, bobbing and weaving and "popping wheelies" through traffic. Wife will get mad at me when I see them and start to root for the light pole or sign post as they blow by me. As long as no one else gets hurt, I figure it's just part of natural selection and improving the gene pool.

That's winter up here too. Fewer cars in the ditch as we're more used to heavy snow, but the ones that do wind up in the ditch are buried pretty deep. But some days they pile up - there was a 100-car pileup just south of me on the first day of spring this year. It was caused by a couple of drivers that figured they could drive 20% over the maximum speed limit in the middle of a blizzard. You'd figure that after 5 months of snow people would know better, but I guess you just can't fix stupid.

But then, a lot of popular "child-rearing experts" have been telling us for decades to raise our kids' self-esteem till they think they can be 10 feet tall and bulletproof. Looks like our current "Age of Entitlement" is still no match for the laws of physics, though.

Unlike propane, you'll never wake up scorched and naked in another county because you mishandled a bag of briquettes.

At least 7 dead in two SUV rollover accidents in Illinois today. Three on I64 near Carbondale and four on I290 in Chicago suburbs. Four more injured in the I290 rollover. I used to drive the section of I290 where today's accident occurred to get to work - long and straight and people want to fire it up. Probably seen the aftermath of 10 or 15 accidents that involved fatalities over the years. Worst I saw, guy wasn't even going that fast but lost control and hit a sign post - four fatalities when Jeep Cherokee "fireballed". I actually was the only witness to the crash. Best was two fast and furious wannabe's came flying past me early one morning - had to be going 130 -140 MPH - saw the flashing lights come on and brake lights to - one guy spun out into the median - by the time I got up there, the officer had the other guy out of his car and they were leaning, arms folded, up against the cruiser waiting for the spun out guy to get out of his car and cross over to them. No one injured in that one.We've also had a small plane do an emergency landing on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago early last Sunday morning. No injuries. Two people died when a small plane crashed into a bank parking lot Wednesday afternoon, at rush hour, in the suburbs.